I admit I learned to cook with mostly a mixture of American and Chinese food. Basically my mom wouldn't cook the stuff I liked so I just made it on my own.

I just picked up some Japanese style sushi rice so I plan on trying my hand at onigiri sometime. I found out it doesn't work so well with plain old white rice.

Maybe ... if I moved three hours (approx 150 miles) east. It's kind of like I said you lived in Memphis.

Here in Hawaii we get a lot of Japanese restaurants. I love sushi and all that kind of stuf.

No worries but it can be. Literally I've been to Boston maybe 5 times in my life and twice were for Anime Boston. Western MA tends to be more rural and Boston looks at us as uncivilized. They also feel there's nothing west of Worcester. We look at Boston as the pit that takes all of our money and gives nothing back.

There was actually a secessionist movement in Western MA a few years ago to split the state in half. Obviously it went nowhere.

Taco Bell is the closest I get to a Mexican food unless I fix tacos at home.I'm banned from all 4 Mexican restourants cuz...well let's say I'm a trouble maker for the Mexicans^^.Italian food is pretty good too.Theres a small Italian place in town that I try to go to at least once a week.The owner is very nice not to mention really funny.And good food.^^

I have a question on rice. I made my very first batch of sushi rice the other day and I was unimpressed. The leftovers, on the other hand, were turned into onigiri and they were much easier to eat. I guess it was something about the sushi rice cold just tasted good.

The problem is, the stuff is mad expensive. Does anyone know how I can get the stuff relatively cheap? I will buy in bulk if necessary.

Oh and there are no Asian Groceries anywhere near me. I don't exactly live in an ethnic part of the country (we literally have 100% white towns not far from me.) ^_^;;

I'm not a huge sushi fan but I can say that the lack of Japanese restaurants here is what motivated me to learn to cook. When I lived on the west coast for 5 years everywhere I lived I could throw a rock and hit like 4 teriyaki stands. When I moved back to the midwest I did a yellow pages search and found out of 341 Asian restaurants in the metro area, 7 of which were Japanese... and only 3 of which weren't located in a mall food court. Out of the 3 actual restaurants, 2 of which are trendy sushi bars where the cheapest thing on the menu is like $18.

After craving teriyaki for 2 years I finally bit the bullet and learned to make it myself. I've been meaning to experiment with steamed gyoza. After a dozen or so tries I still suck at making udon and yakisoba

Yummy, hey zentropa I'll be happy to be the test dummy for trying your steamed gyoza. There so GOOD